No Escape lives up to its title. The all-pervasive threat kicks in at 20 minutes, and the high tension never lets up till the end.

Violent insurrection breaks out on an ordinary American family’s first morning in a luxury hotel somewhere in Southeast Asia (likely Thailand, Laos or Cambodia). The well-armed and organized rebels are systematically killing foreigners. From there on, it’s flight, fight and hiding all the way.

The movie avoids the usual hyperbolic action clichés and keeps the focus squarely on believability. In place of heroism, desperation and occasional bursts of brutality hammer home the immediacy of the peril.

Owen Wilson and Lake Bell, the parents, with Sterling Jerins and Claire Geare as their daughters, do solid work capturing the emotions of the moment, but those are so basic and overwhelming that there isn’t much room for their individual characters. It makes them hard to care about. Pierce Brosnan, as a helpful acquaintance, fares better with a definite point of view, a bit of humour and the key exposition that clunks a bit but makes its sharp political point effectively.

Without massive CG spectacle to propel the thrills, director John Erick Dowdle relies partly on some good stunts, but more on a well-crafted fast pace, strong location work that highlights the scope of the nightmare and an immersive style that foregrounds the characters’ minute-by-minute tension.